Shopping Guide
Live 5pb., considered by fans as a rite of autumn, returned this year for its fifth annual concert. 5pb. is known overseas for such games as Chaos;Head and Steins;Gate, as well as their currently airing anime Robotics;Notes. Artists and voice actors associated with 5pb. gathered for the event which was held on 24 November, 2012 at the Tokyo Dome City Hall in Tokyo and lasted more than five hours.
Similarly to last year’s event, the show started with Kanako Itou on vocals and Chiyomaru Shikura on guitar as they performed the song “Find the Blue” from the game Chaos;Head.
Itou then showed off her powerful voice on the opening theme for Steins;Gate, with Shikura’s flashy guitar playing heating up the venue. Speaking of Shikura, many fans may not know that not only was he in charge of planning for Chaos;Head, Steins;Gate, and Robotics;Notes, he is also the president of MAGES. After the performance, provoked by the habitual gay jokes from fans and artists, Shikura took the mike to declare, “Despite what was said before, I’m not gay!”, to the roaring laughter of the crowd.
The event continued with a performance of the opening theme for the Steins;Gate spinoff game Steins;Gate: Hiyoku Renri no Darling performed by the group Afilia Saga East, who made their debut five years ago at Live 5pb. The girls brought a “moe moe” atmosphere to the event as they sweetly sang and danced to their songs “La*La*La*Revolution” and “Kindan Muteki no Darling”. Performing for the first time, Yumi Hara brought a nostalgic atmosphere to the event as she sang “Red Sky” and “Hanabi”. Nao sang the uptempo song “Gokujo Heaven”, and Asami Shimoda softly sang “One More Time”. The liveliness of the performers really boosted the energy of the crowd.
